Here are some answers to questions you might have. If you have a question that isn’t answered here, reach out to us either via email or in any of our community forums.
What is the Gizmo REALLY?
The Gizmo is a hardware carrier board that accepts two Raspberry Pi Pico microcontrollers. One of the Picos runs system code that supervises network I/O, board functions, and status indicators. The second processor is for your code and is connected to all of the I/O headers.
The carrier board is supported by code that runs on a driver’s station which is commodity hardware based on the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and a compact USB hub designed by Waveshare.
Who is behind the Gizmo?
The Gizmo was developed by a consortium of engineers who attribute our successful careers to a long history of tinkering with software, electronics, and generally taking stuff apart to figure out how it works. The Gizmo provides a good toe-hold for aspiring engineers to have the same experience we had without having to worry about ROM burners, IRQ numbers, or many other bits of tech ephemera of ages past.
Why is it called the Gizmo?
Of the many names we could have chosen, Gizmo was put forward by one of our engineers as a reference to the book “Electric Gadgets and Gizmos: Battery-Powered Buildable Gadgets That Go!” by Alan Bartholomew (this book). The Gizmo is a battery powered gadget that we’ve built, what will you build with it?
How do I get started with the Gizmo?
For full information, check out the complete documentation on our developer site. For a very high level overview, check out the startup page.
I want to get a Gizmo!
You can find up to date information on our sourcing page. This page includes links to all the hardware that makes up the entire Gizmo ecosystem.